Tejo, Lisboa ribeirinha. Plano urbano de Alcântara

Abstract

This thesis presents the results of an architectural analysis of the waterfronts and its impacts within different port cities and different realities. Port cities have been analysed in virtue of their interventions and as being part of a reference group: port cities in the Mediterranean (Barcelona), in the European Northeast (Rotterdam), in the United States of America (New York and San Francisco) and in Britain (London). Following this analysis and based on its foundations and on an international context, the Lisbonʼs waterfront has been studied, which has always been connected with the Tagus River and with the ocean. An historical analysis of the city of Lisbon and its connections to the port has been carried out, focusing the analysis on the Urban Plan of Alcântara (P.U.A.), developed by the architect Manuel Fernandes de Sá, which covers the city waterfront on a critical area of the city. At the same time Lisbonʼs LDF (Local Development Framework) was reviewed, establishing that the P.U.A. will be an "experimental laboratory" of several goals, making it a very important urban plan for Alcântara and for the city of Lisbon. Along this thesis one important subject is pointed, the "terrain vague" which is connected with this kind of urban areas. Most of the studied cases were located on old ports, inactive and/or transformed in warehouses - obsolete structures. All these areas were under the port authoritiesʼ jurisdiction, which have abandoned them or changed their main location, making them inactive and functionless.